We all know the "Who Viewed Your Profile" LinkedIn feature. It's part of a little ego-exercise we take part in each week where we validate just how important we already know we are, and bask in the glory of being stalked by higher-ups that are definitely messaging us right now to offer us the job of a lifetime.

And today, I got an email that said I am among the first to get the new "Who's Viewed Your Profile."

Anyway, it actually is pretty cool, and lets you take your ego on an even more in-depth roller coaster ride than ever before. Check out what's new.

What It Looks Like

This may not be available in your LinkedIn account yet -- the email indicates they're still rolling it out -- but here's what it'll look like. I wanted you to see the whole thing before we start breaking down some of the notable features.

The Cool Bits (and How You Can Use Them)

Alright, now that you have a good idea of what this will look like -- what can you do with it? Let's start with the section you're pretty familiar with already, right at the top.

Section 1: Profile View Data

This graph probably looks pretty familiar -- you can see which weeks you've gotten the most profile views, and attribute spikes to your activity. What's really helpful is the categorization at the top. If LinkedIn spots a trend in people viewing your profile, they'll identify that for you.

For instance, three people from TrackMaven viewing my profile makes sense, because I'm using their software. But if I didn't have a connection there, it could be a good indication that they're looking at me for a job or guest blogging; or if I'm in sales, that they're looking into something I have to sell. (Learn more about social selling here.)

And when you click through on that blue text, it takes you to this handy breakdown that tells you who your profile viewers are -- another incredibly helpful feature for salespeople, particularly ones working specific regions:

If you move on over to the right a bit, you'll notice the new dashboard also calls out what types of people are checking you out. When I click into the stat "20 Viewers with the title Founder/Partner," they deliver a similar breakdown as the company statistics:

As you can see, you get a breakdown of the industries and titles your profile viewers have -- ideally so you can identify trends, although the "Unknown" buckets are pretty large, making it difficult.

Finally, when you check out how viewers found your profile -- the question I've always had -- LinkedIn provides a breakdown based on both location and keyword. This is seriously cool stuff that'll appeal to any of the analytical marketers out there, but again, the Unknown bucket looms large (much like actual Google keyword analytics).

Section 2: Putting a Stat to a Face

The middle section is way less fun to play with, but encourages you to get in touch with, or perform a reciprocal creep (henceforce called a reciprocreep) on, the people who have been viewing your profile.

If you click on the magnifying glass button of an anonymous viewer, you're taken to the typical LinkedIn search results page of employees of that company. If you click on the mail button of a non-anonymous viewer, you're invited to message that viewer. And, of course, there's a call-to-action to upgrade to LinkedIn Premium to see the entire list people checking out your profile.

So really, nothing new to see here.

Section 3: Recommendations for More Profile Views

While the first section is certainly fun to click around in, the last section is the most useful for anyone putting in a concerted effort into getting more profile views. LinkedIn offers concrete recommendations to get more views, and even gives you an idea of how much more your profile views will increase if you take a particular action.

It's unclear to me whether those 1-2% increases are promises or estimates -- maybe LinkedIn will start algorithmically rewarding members that take the actions they recommend here.

I do think LinkedIn really rolled out something impressive here with this upgrade -- for salespeople, networkers, job hunters, and recruiters. Let me know when it rolls out to you and what you think, though. Maybe I'm just distracted by shiny objects.

Great post Corey! I love the new Who Viewed Your Profile features as well. Interesting however, look at your "Who Viewed Your Profile" on you PC, then look at it on you phone, then look at it on a tablet. Each and every time I see variations in the results of who has viewed my profile from one device to the other. One would think the results should always be the same regardless of the device I am using.

Great, Cory! Now everyone knows I was creeping on you! Thanks a lot! ;)
I also received the email but I'm glad you created this post so I can share it with people to let them know what to expect and how to use the new feature to their advantage!

Will this work for business pages? Will LinkedIn company pages have greater insight into the people who viewed their profile? It'd be great if LinkedIn offered retargeting for business's with company pages to show ads to all people who have viewed their page...

For quite a bit I have used LI but never paid much attention to traffic, profile views, etc....it is a tertiary channel for me. Knowing these stats I will hop onto LinkedIn and check out my profile views in more detailed fashion.
It helps to see who you are attracting.
Thanks for the share!

Hey Corey, thanks for this very detailed guide to the new features of LinkedIn "Who Viewed Your Profile." I never knew what to do with this info before - was I supposed to reciprocreep, invite them to connect (kind of creepy, don't you think), or just wait? With all this additional information, those judgement calls are easier to make. I'm especially looking forward to trying LI's recommendations for increasing profile views. Although to tell the truth, I think following specific people just for this purpose is not very "nice," don't you think?

Jill Anderson

Thanks for the article Corey; who doesn't love a good creeper ;) Leave it to LinkedIn to make the creeper appear completely professional and flattering. BraVO :)

Corey, you suggested that the second section was the least fun. I respectfully, disagree. I think that the second section is the reason that we are on LinkedIn... to engage! I actually wrote about how I use the second section to engage almost a year ago. If you click on my name, it's a link to the article.